About Us:

Ashippun is perhaps named for the Indian word for raccoon which is what the Indians called the river which flows through the eastern part of the town. The three people credited with being the first settlers in the Town of Ashippun were Samuel Marshall, Alexander Leslie and Leslie's son, Alexander Jr. Soon after arriving. Leslie and Marshall erected a sawmill on the banks of the river where Alderly now stands. Hans Gasman had come from Gjerpen and settled at Pine Lake in 1843 and entered a claim for 480 acres in sections 35 and 36 in the later part of 1843.
One of the first claims for land in the township was on 10/17/1842 by Elizabeth Graham in the NE 1/4 of Section 13. Most of the terrain in the early days was brush and woods as the land was described as "wooden wilderness."

As settlers came to the Town of Ashippun, each one had to make a log cabin. Usually the first one was small and put up in a hurry. Cabins were easy to make because there was choice timbers in the dense forest of Ashippun.

In 1847 the township had 750 residents which grew to 1017 by 1850. Many of the towns residents emigrated from the east coast, Norway, Scotland, Ireland and The Isle of Man.

The Town of Ashippun is a limestone region with outcroppings visible in the northwest section of the town, which is referred to as the lime ledge area. The town has one river (Ashippun) which is found in the eastern section of town. There is one small lake in the northeastern part of the town called Collins Lake.

The land as a whole is very hilly and the glacier's effects are quite evident. Several large rocks can be found in the northwestern part of the town while there are drumlins, eskers and moraines in the western part of town. The western part of town was the spillway of the melting glacier and the eastern part displays the drift of the Kettle Moraine area.